South Sudan step up preparations for COSAFA Women’s Championship
South Sudan have been hard at work in preparation for the 2021 COSAFA Women’s Championship, where they will be a guest nation in Nelson Mandela Bay next month.
The side will debut in the competition having only played their first international two years ago and are now under the watchful eye of their South African coach Shilene Booysen.
Booysen is no stranger to the COSAFA Women’s Championship having won it a number of times while part of the Banyana Banyana technical team.
She has taken on a different challenge though, which is to guide the South Sudan side in their early years of international football and instill in the players what it takes to be successful at this level.
The team has been training at their base and last week took part in a friendly match against Yei Joint Stars, the South Sudan club that will represent the country in the upcoming CECAFA Women’s Champions League competition.
Booysen’s side won the training fixture 4-0 thanks to goals from Amy Lasú, Nyibol Bol, Natalia Taban and Amama Rashida.
Known as the Bright Starlets, the national team will know it is a big step up once they get to Nelson Mandela Bay but will be pleased their training appears to be paying dividends.
They featured at the 2019 CECAFA Women’s Championship, which served as their international bow, and managed a first ever victory with a 5-0 win over Zanzibar.
But that was offset by losses to Tanzania (0-9) and Burundi (0-3) that meant they did not qualify for the next stage.
The COVID-19 pandemic then struck and the team was inactive through 2020, before they returned to the pitch in April for two games against Ethiopia. The first was an 11-0 loss, but in the second they put up much for fight and lost 3-0.
There is certainly much for Booysen to work on, the team have conceded 26 goals in their five internationals to date, being kept scoreless themselves in all but the win over Zanzibar.
They will face fellow guest nation Tanzania at the COSAFA Women’s Championship, as well as Botswana and Zimbabwe, sides who will certainly have an eye on the semifinals.
